Consumer product manufacturers often expend substantial effort and expense in providing packaging for their various products which attract potential purchasers. The general objective in addition to attracting potential purchasers is to provide the maximum of product exposure to create sufficient interest on the part of the potential purchaser to sell the product. As a result, product manufacturers have endeavored to provide packaging which is multiply colored with images relating to the product and its use. One of the most challenging and highly competitive consumer product industries which aggressively engages in creative product packaging is the toy industry. In attempting to attract purchasers, toy manufacturers frequently go to great lengths to provide attractive product displays and packages which provide substantial viewing windows to highlight the product. An extremely effective packaging tact utilizing a great deal in the toy industry is the so-called "try-me" packaging. While the types of try-me packaging provided by manufacturers has varied, the most typical utilize a package having the product secured within and having at least one transparent viewing window to afford product exposure. In addition, some type of product access or availability is provided by the potential purchaser is able to intrude into the package and activate the toy product therein in order to observe and listen to its operation. This particular packaging method has enjoyed great success in a variety of sound producing or battery-powered types of toys. The advantage is apparent in that the consumer is able to actually observe the product performance.
While so-called try-me packaging works well with a variety of products, certain products by their nature are not practical for packaging within try-me type containers. For example, products which undergo configuration changes or so-called "transformable" type products often undergo size changes during reconfiguration which renders try-me type packaging impractical. In addition, the manipulation of such transformable toy products in try-me type packaging has proven difficult if not impossible.
In other related arts such as advertising devices or the like, practitioners have similarly endeavored to provide attractive displays aimed at arousing the interest of potential consumers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,041,573 issued to Baring-Gould sets forth an ADVERTISING CARD having a planar card supporting an image including the upper torso and head of a man in profile. A bent arm is pivotally secured to the shoulder portion of the image in a resilient fashion and supports a profile of a top hat. The arm is movable to provide the appearance of the man removing and replacing his hat.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,451,251 issued to Biggs sets forth a COMBINATION STRING HOLDER AND ADVERTISING DEVICE in which a housing supports a quantity of string together with a movable sign which is frictionally engaged to the string and which is moved as string is withdrawn from the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,009,509 issued to Megdall sets forth a ROTATING ALBUM MIRROR having a planar mirror defining an aperture through the silvered backing thereof through which an underlying image is observable. A disk is rotatably supported behind the mirror silvered backing and bears a plurality of images each rotatable into alignment with the viewing window.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,283,628 issued to Greenwood sets forth a SLEEP INDUCER having a paddle supporting a pair of opposed outwardly extending ends and having an image supported thereon. A simulated animal such as sheep is pivotally attached to the paddle and includes a finger hole therethrough for pivoting the simulated animal.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,500,106 issued to Wehr sets forth an ANIMATED DISPLAY having a planar display upon which a pair of images are supported together with a plurality of overlying movable image components each pivotally secured to the image which when moved provide the appearance of articulation of the image.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,573,625 issued to Swart sets forth an ADVERTISING DEVICE having a display upon which an image of the upper portion of a cartoon character is drawn. A rotatable member having simulated legs is pivotally secured to the display and rotates to provide the appearance of moving legs in a running or walking action.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,727,167 issued to Knott sets forth a TOY FOR FORMING GROTESQUE FIGURES having a planar board defining a center aperture behind which a plurality of rotatable disks are overlappingly supported. Each disk supports a plurality of facial portions and the disks are rotatable to provide varying combinations of facial elements in the person formed in composite within the window.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,791,998 issued to Decker sets forth a NIGHT LAMP having a cylindrical drum-like housing defining a rectangular aperture therein. A cylindrical image roll is rotatably supported within the drum and bears a plurality of images thereon which are moved past the window as the internal image bearing drum rotates.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,040 issued to Kinberg sets forth a MOVABLE FIGURE CARD TOY having a planar card defining a pair of apertures through which underlying images are viewed. A pair of finger apertures are further provided which expose finger apertures in the image bearing card. The image bearing card is slidably movable within the housing card to articulate the images within the window frames.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,308,880 issued to Graves sets forth a ANIMATED DENTAL FLOSS DISPENSER having a housing supporting a quantity of dental floss therein. The housing defines an image facet bearing a fanciful face and a plurality of movable image members frictionally coupled to the dental floss roll and moved in response to dental floss being withdrawn from the housing.
French Patent 1,191,298 issued to Andre sets forth a postal package having a transformable illustration including a viewing aperture behind which a circular disk is pivotally supported. The disk is rotatable to selectively align a portion of the disk with the viewing window to expose a selected image through the viewing window.
While the foregoing described prior art devices have provided some commercial success and improvement in the art, there remains nonetheless a continuing need in the art for evermore improved and interesting packaging for transformable products such as toys or the like.